News item

Archive of: November, 2015

The Specialised Healthcare Alliance has submitted a response to the Department of Health’s recent consultation on its Mandate to NHS England.

In particular, the Alliance’s submission calls for an objective explicitly focused on the need for NHS England to account for its performance in commissioning of £14.7billon of specialised services.

The Alliance welcomes the consultation document’s provisions on improving outcomes and reducing health inequalities but is keen to ensure that these apply equally across all patient populations, from the smallest to the largest.

Furthermore, the Alliance argues that the Mandate’s particular focus on financial considerations must not create an environment in which the pursuit of clinical excellence and safety is secondary to the need to make savings.

The response also focuses on the potential impact of regional devolution arrangements, looking in particular at the likely changes to structures of accountability across the health service.

The Specialised Healthcare Alliance today welcomes NHS England’s publication of the minutes of its Patient and Public Voice Assurance Group.

This represents the culmination of a long process of publication and is a welcome step for the transparency of patient and public voice within NHS specialised commissioning.

Over the last year, members of the Alliance have repeatedly called for these and other NHS England meeting minutes to be published in the interests of transparency. NHS England had agreed to do so in principle but this was followed by repeated delay.

The Alliance will continue to campaign for greater transparency across NHS England’s specialised commissioning function to ensure that patients and the public can best engage with decisions about specialised care.